Welcome to Architectural Drafting & Design

Architectural Syllabus 2013

This is a rough schedule and syllabus; expect some of the finer details to change as we progress through the semester. I will share a Google Doc's folder with the email address you provided in the survey.

Daily Events

Day 1

Introductions, passed out books, and went over the syllabus. Then we did the same project as the Drafting students making a MegaBlok to get our feet wet with sketching and Google SketchUp

Day 2

We'll start the day with a short quiz over the reading. We went through Chp 2--look on the syllabus. Homework is to draw 10 pieces of vegetation in plan view. Look for easy ways to do this--from an architects point of view you don't want to be spending time (or digital memory resources) making 'art', but just representing trees & shrubs. Here are some examples A & B.

I've posted a listing of The SketchUp Show which you should start to watch on your free time. In rare instances I'll require you to watch these, but in general they are there for your reference when using SketchUp. AND, if you wait till we're using it, it might be a bit much to swallow all at one time.

Day __

Today we took the magazines out of the back and practiced drawing. For most of you it was floor plans, but also some exteriors. This is good practice that we will continue to build on. Also, we found some 'ugly' and 'pretty' buildings and discussed those. Homework was to take some pictures of your house. I collected this week's homework.

Day __

Today we are going to take your exterior house pictures and use Google SketchUp and photo match to sketch out a pretty good outline of your house. Use the SketchUp Show #23 as a start, though it was done on an older version of SU, so some of it is different.
Here is another good video discussion of making walls, etc. that may interest you.

Day ___

We'll start the day with a vocab quiz over Chp's 1-5.
Today your objective will be to make a site plan ... of sorts.It will be for a city block and the scale will be 1/8"=1'.
  • You'll each get a piece of paper which you will cut in half (your choice which way). This will be your site (property). On the side you think should be the 'front', draw a 5' wide sidewalk.
  • With another single piece of paper you're going to make a simple house with the following constraints. It has only 4 sides. It's footprint is no more than 1000 square feet. Assume floors are 10' tall. Give it a suitable roof. Use scissors and tape.
  • If you want a garage, make one to match the house and is sized proportional to the house, a car, and still leaves living space on your plot.
  • Here are some examples that might inspire you.
Next class we will continue with Monday's assignment of taking your house and making a simple structure in SketchUp. Please plan and study accordingly.

Feb 14

Today we're going to do an activity looking at neighborhoods on Google Maps. Your homework for vacation is to read Chp 6-8. When we get back we're going to start drawing floor plans, starting with kitchens and baths. One we will do by hand on paper, and the other we'll do with SketchUp.


Resources

Apps

Here are some Apps which you should download and investigate.
  • Houzz; this is a great site to peruse all kinds of residential architecture from kitchens and bathrooms, to garages and patios. Use this to start a library of ideas for your projects in this class.
  • Flipboard; this is a keen way to read short snippets from Facebook, news, sports, and ... online magazines which focus on architecture and design.
  • PadCAD lite; so far I don't like this because it's tough for me to get accuracy from my fingers. But, it might be of interest to you. I think there is a limitation in saving files in the lite version.

Reading/Listening/Watching Material

  • The SketchUp Show. This is a great podcast on learning to use Google SketchUp. Over the course of the semester I will expect you to do several projects on this platform.
  • Feedly: Design I don't know if this is my Feedly or if you can see it, but they have a great selection of material to get you thinking about the human designed environment.
  • An article to read on environmental houses.
  • A good video on modular steel homes. Particularly after minute 3.
  • Interesting concept of open-source architecture as discussed on TED talk (at least view minute 15). Here is Cameron Sinclair's web page.
  • A free online resource for drawing floor plans. Check it out.
  • SketchUp: using floor plans to make a house.


Revit

This weekend, watch the first 2 of these videos ... we'll eventually get through most all of them.

Here are some locations online for help.